Oceanside to look into trimming fire department

OCEANSIDE  The Oceanside City Council on Tuesday decided to look into options for saving money on fire services in hopes of eventually resolving recurring cash shortages in its yearly budgets.

Possible changes for the Oceanside Fire Department include consolidating two stations and reducing staffing during nonpeak hours, which together could save $1.8 million, a memo from City Manager Peter Weiss said.

The City Council voted 3-2 to contract with TriData Division Sytem Planning Corporation to study those options. That analysis will cost about $71,000 and be completed in January or February.

Councilmen Jerome Kern, Gary Felien and Jack Feller voted to commission the study while Councilwoman Esther Sanchez and Mayor Jim Wood opposed it. The city manager’s memo had laid out other options for saving money year after year, but the city council did not move forward on those at the budget workshop held Tuesday, and may take them up again as the city approaches the next fiscal year, beginning in July.

“We do need to figure out how to move forward and figure out how to address this (structural deficit),” Kern said. “All of those things that are quality of life issues besides police and fire are at risk if we do nothing. … We need some numbers, we need some figures, we need some facts in front of us that we can make decisions on.”

Wood had motioned earlier in the meeting not to conduct the study or spend time and money for now on nixing the structural deficit. He favored instead making those decisions when the time came to draw up the budget for the next fiscal year. That motion failed 2-3, divided along the same lines as the other vote.

“I think we should just stay on course and address it year by year,” Wood said.

Given declines in revenue from property and sales taxes – the city’s main sources of general fund income – Oceanside’s ongoing expenses are likely to outpace revenue in upcoming years, creating fiscal shortfall that is basically built into year-to-year operations, called a structural deficit.

In working out its finances for the current fiscal year, which began in July, the City Council cut $3.6 million in spending to balance its $112.4 million general fund budget. To do that, the city laid off employees at libraries, community centers and senior centers, trimmed funding to community television channel KOCT and closed city facilities such as the San Luis Rey Valley Resource Center and the Marshall Street pool.

City officials project that without addressing the structural deficit city revenues would come up short of expenses by $2 million in the 2012-2013 fiscal year, $3.5 million in 2013-2014, $5.6 million in 2014-2015 and $6.8 million in 2015-2016.

Trimming $4.5 million in regular expenses would cover the deficit for those four years, City Manager Peter Weiss said in the memo.

Other possibilities for saving money presented in the memo, prepared at the request of the City Council majority, included switching from having a police department to contracting with the county Sheriff’s Department; eliminating entire programs such as libraries, economic development or parks and recreation; or pay cuts for all city employees.

The City Council did not take any action other than approving the $71,000 contract to study potential cost savings in the fire department.

Councilwoman Esther Sanchez and Mayor Jim Wood, who retired in 2002 a 31-year veteran of the Oceanside Police Department, said they were unwilling to make cuts to public safety.

“There are times I remember hitting the ground because of the shots fired in my neighborhood in Oceanside,” Sanchez said, recalling growing up in the city. “We have to have a safe community, otherwise businesses will come and go, mostly go.”

Wood pointed out that the city has a higher public safety burden because thousands of young people often come to the city from Camp Pendleton, increasing services needed.

Weiss estimated that switching to the Sheriff’s Department could save about $10 million a year. The City Council did not move on that option.

Several residents praised the Oceanside Police Department. Some derided city officials, making comments about their weight and saying they’d likely need the fire department for emergency services.

“Spending more money on consultants is just ridiculous,” said Oceanside resident Nadine Scott. “We certainly don’t want to close a fire station. … Even suggesting you close one is just beyond abysmal.”

Oceanside Resident Clint Russell said his family depends on the first responders because his son is disabled.

“If you cut the fire department … that would jeopardize the life of my son,” he said. “You’re going to destroy quality of life here by doing this.”

Some have critiqued the City Council for having individual aides, which if consolidated could save the city $328,000. Feller said he was willing to make that cut. The topic was not broached again by another council member during the meeting.

The city manager’s memo also looked at outsourcing more city services, such as ambulances, park janitorial work, fleet maintenance, parking citation enforcement, recreation custodians and street sign maintenance, which together with consolidation of parks and recreation management could save nearly $2.6 million.

Those options will likely come up again as the city approaches the next budget cycle.